arXiv subjects

Zhang Jiang

Publications and source records attributed to Zhang Jiang.

69 records · Page 4Linked to original sources

arXiv2017

Near-optimal quantum circuit for Grover's unstructured search using a transverse field

Inspired by a class of algorithms proposed by Farhi et al. (arXiv:1411.4028), namely the quantum approximate optimization algorithm (QAOA), we present a circuit-based quantum algorithm to search for a needle in a haystack, obtaining the same quadratic speedup achieved by Grover's original algorithm. In our algorithm, the problem Hamiltonian (oracle) and a transverse field are applied alternately to the system in a periodic manner. We introduce a technique, based on spin-coherent states, to analyze the composite unitary in a single period. This composite unitary drives a closed transition between two states that have high degrees of overlap with the initial state and the target state, respectively. The transition rate in our algorithm is of order $Θ(1/\sqrt N)$, and the overlaps are of order $Θ(1)$, yielding a nearly optimal query complexity of $T\simeq \sqrt N (π/2\sqrt 2\,)$. Our algorithm is a QAOA circuit that demonstrates a quantum advantage with a large number of iterations that is not derived from Trotterization of an adiabatic quantum optimization (AQO) algorithm. It also suggests that the analysis required to understand QAOA circuits involves a very different process from estimating the energy gap of a Hamiltonian in AQO.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2017

A NASA Perspective on Quantum Computing: Opportunities and Challenges

In the last couple of decades, the world has seen several stunning instances of quantum algorithms that provably outperform the best classical algorithms. For most problems, however, it is currently unknown whether quantum algorithms can provide an advantage, and if so by how much, or how to design quantum algorithms that realize such advantages. Many of the most challenging computational problems arising in the practical world are tackled today by heuristic algorithms that have not been mathematically proven to outperform other approaches but have been shown to be effective empirically. While quantum heuristic algorithms have been proposed, empirical testing becomes possible only as quantum computation hardware is built. The next few years will be exciting as empirical testing of quantum heuristic algorithms becomes more and more feasible. While large-scale universal quantum computers are likely decades away, special-purpose quantum computational hardware has begun to emerge that will become more powerful over time, as well as some small-scale universal quantum computers.

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arXiv2017

Characterizing Quantum Supremacy in Near-Term Devices

A critical question for the field of quantum computing in the near future is whether quantum devices without error correction can perform a well-defined computational task beyond the capabilities of state-of-the-art classical computers, achieving so-called quantum supremacy. We study the task of sampling from the output distributions of (pseudo-)random quantum circuits, a natural task for benchmarking quantum computers. Crucially, sampling this distribution classically requires a direct numerical simulation of the circuit, with computational cost exponential in the number of qubits. This requirement is typical of chaotic systems. We extend previous results in computational complexity to argue more formally that this sampling task must take exponential time in a classical computer. We study the convergence to the chaotic regime using extensive supercomputer simulations, modeling circuits with up to 42 qubits - the largest quantum circuits simulated to date for a computational task that approaches quantum supremacy. We argue that while chaotic states are extremely sensitive to errors, quantum supremacy can be achieved in the near-term with approximately fifty superconducting qubits. We introduce cross entropy as a useful benchmark of quantum circuits which approximates the circuit fidelity. We show that the cross entropy can be efficiently measured when circuit simulations are available. Beyond the classically tractable regime, the cross entropy can be extrapolated and compared with theoretical estimates of circuit fidelity to define a practical quantum supremacy test.

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arXiv2017

Non-commuting two-local Hamiltonians for quantum error suppression

Physical constraints make it challenging to implement and control many-body interactions. For this reason, designing quantum information processes with Hamiltonians consisting of only one- and two-local terms is a worthwhile challenge. Enabling error suppression with two-local Hamiltonians is particularly challenging. A no-go theorem of Marvian and Lidar [Physical Review Letters 113(26), 260504 (2014)] demonstrates that, even allowing particles with high Hilbert-space dimension, it is impossible to protect quantum information from single-site errors by encoding in the ground subspace of any Hamiltonian containing only commuting two-local terms. Here, we get around this no-go result by encoding in the ground subspace of a Hamiltonian consisting of non-commuting two-local terms arising from the gauge operators of a subsystem code. Specifically, we show how to protect stored quantum information against single-qubit errors using a Hamiltonian consisting of sums of the gauge generators from Bacon-Shor codes [Physical Review A 73(1), 012340 (2006)] and generalized-Bacon-Shor code [Physical Review A 83(1), 012320 (2011)]. Our results imply that non-commuting two-local Hamiltonians have more error-suppressing power than commuting two-local Hamiltonians. While far from providing full fault tolerance, this approach improves the robustness achievable in near-term implementable quantum storage and adiabatic quantum computations, reducing the number of higher-order terms required to encode commonly used adiabatic Hamiltonians such as the Ising Hamiltonians common in adiabatic quantum optimization and quantum annealing.

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arXiv2017

Scaling analysis and instantons for thermally-assisted tunneling and Quantum Monte Carlo simulations

We develop an instantonic calculus to derive an analytical expression for the thermally-assisted tunneling decay rate of a metastable state in a fully connected quantum spin model. The tunneling decay problem can be mapped onto the Kramers escape problem of a classical random dynamical field. This dynamical field is simulated efficiently by path integral Quantum Monte Carlo (QMC). We show analytically that the exponential scaling with the number of spins of the thermally-assisted quantum tunneling rate and the escape rate of the QMC process are identical. We relate this effect to the existence of a dominant instantonic tunneling path. The instanton trajectory is described by nonlinear dynamical mean-field theory equations for a single site magnetization vector, which we solve exactly. Finally, we derive scaling relations for the "spiky" barrier shape when the spin tunnelling and QMC rates scale polynomially with the number of spins $N$ while a purely classical over-the-barrier activation rate scales exponentially with $N$.

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arXiv2016

Particle-Number-Conserving Bogoliubov Approximation for Bose-Einstein Condensates Using Extended Catalytic States

We encode the many-body wavefunction of a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) in the $N$-particle sector of an extended catalytic state. This catalytic state is a coherent state for the condensate mode and an arbitrary state for the modes orthogonal to the condensate mode. Going to a time-dependent interaction picture where the state of the condensate mode is displaced to the vacuum, we can organize the effective Hamiltonian by powers of ${N}^{-1/2}$. Requiring the terms of order ${N}^{1/2}$ to vanish gives the Gross-Pitaevskii equation. Going to the next order, $N^0$, we derive equations for the number-conserving Bogoliubov approximation, first given by Castin and Dum [Phys. Rev. A $\textbf{57}$, 3008 (1998)]. In contrast to other approaches, ours is well suited to calculating the state evolution in the Schrödinger picture; moreover, it is straightforward to generalize our method to multi-component BECs and to higher-order corrections.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2015

Understanding Quantum Tunneling through Quantum Monte Carlo Simulations

The tunneling between the two ground states of an Ising ferromagnet is a typical example of many-body tunneling processes between two local minima, as they occur during quantum annealing. Performing quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) simulations we find that the QMC tunneling rate displays the same scaling with system size, as the rate of incoherent tunneling. The scaling in both cases is $O(Δ^2)$, where $Δ$ is the tunneling splitting. An important consequence is that QMC simulations can be used to predict the performance of a quantum annealer for tunneling through a barrier. Furthermore, by using open instead of periodic boundary conditions in imaginary time, equivalent to a projector QMC algorithm, we obtain a quadratic speedup for QMC, and achieve linear scaling in $Δ$. We provide a physical understanding of these results and their range of applicability based on an instanton picture.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2015

Particle Correlations in Bose-Einstein Condensates

The impact of interparticle correlations on the behavior of Bose-Einstein Condensates (BECs) is discussed using two approaches. In the first approach, the wavefunction of a BEC is encoded in the $N$-particle sector of an extended "catalytic state". Going to a time-dependent interaction picture, we can organize the effective Hamiltonian by powers of ${N}^{-1/2}$. Requiring the terms of order ${N}^{1/2}$ to vanish, we get the Gross-Pitaevskii Equation. Going to the next order, $N^0$, we obtain the number-conserving Bogoliubov approximation. Our approach allows one to stay in the Schrödinger picture and to apply many techniques from quantum optics. Moreover, it is easier to track different orders in the Hamiltonian and to generalize to the multi-component case. In the second approach, I consider a state of $N =l\times n$ bosons that is derived by symmetrizing the $n$-fold tensor product of an arbitrary $l$-boson state. Particularly, we are interested in the pure state case for $l=2$, which we call the Pair-Correlated State (PCS). I show that PCS reproduces the number-conserving Bogoliubov approximation; moreover, it also works in the strong interaction regime where the Bogoliubov approximation fails. For the two-site Bose-Hubbard model, I find numerically that the error (measured by the trace distance of the two-particle reduced density matrices) of PCS is less than two percent over the entire parameter space, thus making PCS a bridge between the superfluid and Mott insulating phases. Amazingly, the error of PCS does not increase, in the time-dependent case, as the system evolves for longer times. I derive both time-dependent and -independent equations for the ground state and the time evolution of the PCS ansatz. The time complexity of simulating PCS does not depend on $N$ and is linear in the number of orbitals in use.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2014

Quantum limits on post-selected, probabilistic quantum metrology

Probabilistic metrology attempts to improve parameter estimation by occasionally reporting an excellent estimate and the rest of the time either guessing or doing nothing at all. Here we show that probabilistic metrology can never improve quantum limits on estimation of a single parameter, both on average and asymptotically in number of trials, if performance is judged relative to mean-square estimation error. We extend the result by showing that for a finite number of trials, the probability of obtaining better estimates using probabilistic metrology, as measured by mean-square error, decreases exponentially with the number of trials. To be tight, the performance bounds we derive require that likelihood functions be approximately normal, which in turn depends on how rapidly specific distributions converge to a normal distribution with number of trials.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2014

Quantum Fisher information for states in exponential form

We derive explicit expressions for the quantum Fisher information and the symmetric logarithmic derivative (SLD) of a quantum state in the exponential form; the SLD is expressed in terms of the generator. Applications include quantum-metrology problems with Gaussian states and general thermal states. Specifically, we give the SLD for a Gaussian state in two forms, in terms of its generator and its moments; the Fisher information is also calculated for both forms. Special cases are discussed, including pure, degenerate, and very noisy Gaussian states.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2013

Mixing nonclassical pure states in a linear-optical network almost always generates modal entanglement

In quantum optics a pure state is considered classical, relative to the statistics of photodetection, if and only if it is a coherent state. A different and newer notion of nonclassicality is based on modal entanglement. One example that relates these two notions is the Hong-Ou-Mandel effect, where modal entanglement is generated by a beamsplitter from the nonclassical photon-number state. This suggests that beamsplitters or, more generally, linear-optical networks are mediators of the two notions of nonclassicality. In this Brief Report, we show the following: Given a nonclassical pure-product-state input to an N-port linear-optical network, the output is almost always mode entangled; the only exception is a product of squeezed states, all with the same squeezing strength, input to a network that does not mix the squeezed and anti-squeezed quadratures. Our work thus gives a necessary and sufficient condition for a linear network to generate modal entanglement from pure product inputs, a result that is of immediate relevance to the boson sampling problem.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2013

Quantum limits on probabilistic amplifiers

An ideal phase-preserving linear amplifier is a deterministic device that adds to an input signal the minimal amount of noise consistent with the constraints imposed by quantum mechanics. A noiseless linear amplifier takes an input coherent state to an amplified coherent state, but only works part of the time. Such a device is actually better than noiseless, since the output has less noise than the amplified noise of the input coherent state; for this reason we refer to such devices as {\em immaculate}. Here we bound the working probabilities of probabilistic and approximate immaculate amplifiers and construct theoretical models that achieve some of these bounds. Our chief conclusions are the following: (i) the working probability of any phase-insensitive immaculate amplifier is very small in the phase-plane region where the device works with high fidelity; (ii) phase-sensitive immaculate amplifiers that work only on coherent states sparsely distributed on a phase-plane circle centered at the origin can have a reasonably high working probability.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2012

Ancilla models for quantum operations: For what unitaries does the ancilla state have to be physical?

Any evolution described by a completely positive trace-preserving linear map can be imagined as arising from the interaction of the evolving system with an initially uncorrelated ancilla. The interaction is given by a joint unitary operator, acting on the system and the ancilla. Here we study the properties such a unitary operator must have in order to force the choice of a physical- that is, positive-state for the ancilla if the end result is to be a physical-that is, completely positive-evolution of the system.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2012

Quantum limits on phase-preserving linear amplifiers

The purpose of a phase-preserving linear amplifier is to make a small signal larger, regardless of its phase, so that it can be perceived by instruments incapable of resolving the original signal, while sacrificing as little as possible in signal-to-noise. Quantum mechanics limits how well this can be done: a high-gain linear amplifier must degrade the signal-to-noise; the noise added by the amplifier, when referred to the input, must be at least half a quantum at the operating frequency. This well-known quantum limit only constrains the second moments of the added noise. Here we derive the quantum constraints on the entire distribution of added noise: we show that any phase-preserving linear amplifier is equivalent to a parametric amplifier with a physical state for the ancillary mode; the noise added to the amplified field mode is distributed according to the Wigner function of the ancilla state.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2007

Optimal 1->M universal quantum cloning via spin networks

We present a scheme that transform 1 qubit to M identical copies with optimal fidedelity via free dynamical evolution of spin star networks. We show that the Heisenberg XXZ coupling can fulfill the challenge. The initial state of the copying machine and the parameters of the spin Hamiltonian are discussed in detail. Furthermore we have proposed a feasible method to prepare the initial state of the copying machine.

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